The next morning proved that tensions hadn't exactly simmered down after a good night's sleep.
An awkward atmosphere hung around in the girl's dormitory that morning while they all got ready for school. Lavender was rather antsy to get out, and tried hurrying Parvati along with her; the other girl merely remarked she'd meet her down in the Great Hall for breakfast, leaving both Violet and Hermione confused.
"Um… about last night…" Parvati said, addressing Violet directly. "I'm sorry about Lavender, and I'm really sorry about the jab she made about you having a crush on Harry."
Violet gave her a curt nod as she tied her hair up into a bun. Parvati took that as her signal to go and met her friend, but she hovered at the door.
"For what it's worth - if Harry actually opened his eyes - I think you two would be really sweet together. Especially after seeing you both at the Yule Ball…"
With those words, she left. Violet was flabbergasted, Hermione amused.
"Harry has opened his eyes," she commented, causing Violet to go red. "A lot more than before the summer, I have to say."
"Well - he's hardly the most observant person. He didn't even realise there were at least three versions of you running around the school at one time in our third year." Violet picked up her bag and started walking towards the door of the dormitory, but then Hermione jumped in front of her, blocking her exit.
"Something happened over the summer, didn't it?"
Violet clucked her tongue. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"The blazer. Going up to that room in Padfoot's house…" Hermione narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "What happened?"
"What do you want me to tell you, Hermione?!" Violet raised her voice, tetchy. "That me and Harry are secretly in love?! Or - or - or - god forbid - we had underage sex all those times he was up in that room with me?! Or maybe - and I think this is the most realistic answer - maybe I grew closer with him because I didn't blindly follow an old man's orders about keeping information about Voldemort secret from the one person who should know it!"
She took a deep breath after that, her cheeks even more flushed than before and a guilt filling her for snapping at Hermione like that. Violet's shoulders sagged, and she pinched the bridge of her nose on seeing that her friend was visibly hurt.
"I'm - I'm sorry, Hermione."
"No… no it's fine," her voice was timid, faraway. She sniffed. "I'm sorry. It's not my business unless either of you two decide to tell me or Ron. And you're right, actually. He and I did blindly follow Dumbledore. We felt awful for it at the end of the day, but - well, we still did it, didn't we?"
"Yeah… there's always the chance you and Ron made the more sensible decision anyway. I mean, look where it got me for half the summer: alone and resenting my own mother," Violet said, fighting back tears that sprang to her eyes. She shook herself out of that pretty quickly. "And um - we - we really are just closer than before. The - the sex comment was a very throwaway example. We really did just spend all that time talking."
"No, of course, I completely get that." Hermione was clearly trying to hold back something else, and Violet rolled her eyes.
"Please just say whatever you're thinking?"
"We're all angry about how Harry is being treated, but don't snap at me. Snap at Lavender, she could use it a little more often," Hermione said haughtily, finally leaving the dormitory. Violet remained there stumped for a few moments before she followed.
The boys were waiting for the pair of them in the Common Room, with Hermione reaching them a few moments before Violet did. As terrible as they were at reading female friendships, Harry and Ron did note that something was amiss between the two girls. They were both sensible enough not to bring attention to it, the four of them opting to walk to the Great Hall in silence.
It didn't help that Harry was obviously in a mood as well, something of which did get talked about once they were settled and with their new timetables.
"Is everything alright Harry?" Hermione asked politely.
"Seamus really can't stand to sleep in the same room as me…" Harry murmured before buttering some toast. "Dean's a bit… well - Dean's being nice. But he's obviously Seamus' best friend so…" he shrugged, trying to play it off.
"I take it he carried on once you were all upstairs?"
Harry nodded in response.
"Lavender was the exact same last night," she then added, gloomily.
"Brilliant. You were all having a good chat about me then?"
"Actually I yelled at her before Hermione could," Violet piped up, shooting him a strange look. "Considering it was only our first night back, we couldn't have Lavender completely terrified to be in the same room as us for the rest of the year."
She and Hermione then glanced at each other, exchanging tiny smiles as all was forgiven between the pair of them in that moment.
"Funnily enough, we are on your side, Harry, remember?" Hermione then continued on, something of which Violet was grateful for as she pulled out a book to read whilst eating her cereal. She didn't particularly want to fall out with Harry. "We'll be telling people to shut up where necessary, so don't assume so quickly…"
"Right. Yeah. Sorry…" he mumbled.
Violet had to resist shaking her head at the current level of stupidity her boyfriend was displaying - then again, she supposed Seamus had probably gotten to him good last night.
"Moving on swiftly… we should probably prepare for the amount of work we're going to get set this year," Violet then said. "And absolutely no copying off of myself or Hermione this time. We can help, but there are limits."
The boys groaned, while Hermione tried not to look too pleased with what Violet had said.
"Don't two start!" Hermione snapped lightly. "Violet's right. This is the year we have to consider what we might want to do after Hogwarts… We'll have to pick our N.E. carefully."
"I dunno," Ron said. "Haven't really thought about it much - but being an Auror would be cool, wouldn't it, Harry?"
"Yeah, I guess. That or teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts would be pretty cool too," Harry answered.
"I'd fancy doing something worthwhile," Hermione said.
"Being an Auror is worthwhile! Go on - what about you, Vi?" Ron asked her.
"I want to be a Healer," she said, shrugging modestly.
"Now that's worthwhile," Hermione told the boys, but Violet wasn't entirely convinced.
"I mean - it's more noble than anything. Besides, dad's a Healer. It just seems like a really interesting profession to get into. Wouldn't hurt to be able to help look after other people, you know…"
"That does explain why you put a lot of effort into Potions," Harry remarked, a pensive look on his face.
"You should be putting effort into Potions anyway…" She adored Harry - she really did - but sometimes he was quite dense. It was certainly a miracle he'd survived this long without utilising his brain properly. That thought alone made her smirk as she got back to her book.
"What?"
She covered up a giggle with a subtle clearing of her throat instead. "Nothing," she replied, turning a page in her book and electing to drop out of the conversation entirely. When Violet was certain that Ron and Hermione were particularly engrossed with arguing about something stupid - as ever - she risked a glance up at Harry, who caught her eye and smirked himself.
That most definitely set the tone for the day - for the year, at the very least.
The morning lessons were easy enough that day, even if History of Magic was painfully boring as ever. One form of entertainment came in Violet constantly nudging Harry's shin under the table so that he actually took notes on what Professor Binns was saying. Eventually he scrawled something on a spare bit of parchment to her.
Can't I just copy your notes later? It said in his messy scrawl.
Violet paused in her own notetaking to write back to him. You're not even trying to pay attention.
I am! He's boring.
I know that, but come on…
That effectively started a war between the two of them.
Please?
No.
I'll go out with you if you do.
Violet started snickering with her hand clapped over her mouth in an effort to mute the noise. She managed to write something back underneath. You know how to strike a bargain, Potter…
Harry raised an eyebrow at that. So is that a yes? You'll let me copy your notes from this lesson later and I get to take you out?
She figured the turn of phrase he used warranted a bit of fun on her part. Just to clarify: that's to take me out on a date and not take me out by murder?
They were both giggling quietly at this point.
Obviously a date…
Where?
It'll have to be Hogsmeade…
True… when?
First Hogsmeade trip of the year?
Done deal. You can copy off me all you like for History of Magic. Don't tell Hermione.
"What the hell are you two playing at?!" Ron hissed as he leaned forward over his and Hermione's desk to stick his head between the pair of them. Violet hastily grabbed the shared parchment and slid it underneath her actual work. "What's that?"
"Nothing… nothing…" she insisted. "Playing hangman…"
"Hangman?"
"Muggle game," Harry said swiftly. "Come on, Ron, pay attention to Binns. The girls said no copying this year…"
Ron wasn't entirely sold on that, but sat back in his seat rather gloomily as he tried his best to pay attention to Binns for the rest of the hour they were with the ghost. Harry made notes where he could, murmuring a thank you to Violet on their way out as she slipped him her parchment for later on.
Potions wasn't much better - if anything, it was a more intense affair. Violet managed to save Harry's neck by reminding him about the Syrup of Hellabore that needed to be added to his Draught of Peace before he moved onto the next instruction. A mistake, on her part, as Snape wasn't happy that Harry had actually managed to brew a Potion somewhat successfully.
"Five points from Gryffindor," he said with a sneer, causing all the Gryffindors in the classroom to groan.
"Professor-" Violet tried to object.
"Miss Merryworth, I'd suggest shutting your mouth unless you want to lose an additional five points for your house. You're not going to be able to mutter instructions to Mr Potter in his exam, are you?"
She became very tight lipped after that.
As if that wasn't bad enough, that particular moment had sparked up the Slytherins to start using the "Mad Merryworth" nickname again. She didn't care too much about it this time around, considering it was for an entirely different reason.
"If that's what they're going for because I'm sticking up for Harry in all ways, then fine," she huffed on their way to lunch.
"Bloody hell, Vi, you're on one today aren't you?" Ron commented.
"I need to be if we have Defence Against the Dark Arts last thing today," she replied. "It's hard to be afraid if you're annoyed enough."
"Yeah, but… didn't think I'd ever hear you try and dispute Snape."
"Let's be real: with the vendetta he has against Harry, the fact he really dislikes Hermione, I think five points lost was the bare minimum he could have done to Gryffindor today."
Even Hermione couldn't disagree with that, but raised an interesting point thereafter.
"I thought he might have… changed…" she said quietly. "Since you know…"
"Poisonous toads can't change their spots," Ron said.
Naturally that led to the pair of them bickering enough about Snape and Dumbledore's decisions over lunch to the point that Harry went off to Divination early. He'd had enough of it for the day, clearly, and Violet could see why.
"Are you two capable of going a year without some kind of argument?" she asked the pair of them calmly. That certainly caused them to reconsider what they had been fighting about, and lunch passed by relatively quietly after that.
Divination was perhaps worse than History of Magic, but Violet reminded herself she only had one more year of that godforsaken subject before she could drop it entirely. All she needed was an Acceptable in her Divination O.W.L and that was it: no more cop out subjects for her. She only half paid attention to what Trelawney was saying, and soon enough came the moment she'd been dreading.
Defence Against the Dark Arts.
Everyone filtered into the classroom since Umbridge hadn't arrived yet, and were playfully messing around. Someone had charmed an origami swan to fly around the classroom which naturally got them all in a good mood: they were all playfully hitting it about to each other, throwing things at it to keep it moving, and then it erupted into flames.
The burnt swan drifted down to Parvati's desk.
"Good afternoon, children," Umbridge said from the back of the classroom. Everybody turned towards her, unamused, and not sure if they should even respond. She offered them her signature sickly smile instead. "I said: good afternoon, children."
There were murmurs of "good afternoon" in response as she wandered to the front of the classroom.
"Now that won't do. If I address you all, I expect a 'good afternoon, Professor Umbridge,' or a 'yes, Professor Umbridge,' or 'no, Professor Umbridge,' is that understood?" she asked them, when at the front of the classroom.
"Yes, Professor Umbridge," the class chanted in unison at her.
It only went downhill from there.
Textbooks were handed out that really took them back to the basics of the subject. Hermione was queried about the fact there was nothing in the textbooks about using defensive spells - to which Umbridge was frankly appalled about the mere notion of.
"How do you expect us to do well in the practical part of our exams?" Violet piped up, feeling particularly courageous.
"If you learn the theory well enough, Miss Merryworth, then you will pass your practical exams with no trouble at all!"
Dean raised his hand, and Umbridge called on him.
"Yes, Mr-?"
"Thomas. Dean Thomas." He lowered his hand. "Violet's right - how are we meant to do well in the practical exam? Surely we need to practise the spells in class and get them right instead of just blindly throwing us into the exam with no practice at all!"
Umbridge was very insistent and held steadfast about there not being any need to practice spells in class, and that it wasn't the Ministry approved way to go with lessons. She deemed it too dangerous. That only added fuel to the fire, and made Harry absolutely lose it.
The Voldemort conversation came up. It made everyone else except for him fall to silence.
Violet trod on his foot in a pleading effort to get him to stop talking, but he kept going - he kept going, provoking their teacher to the point she shouted at him. And gave him detentions every evening for the rest of the week for good measure. Violet took her foot off of Harry's.
The rest of the lesson passed by in silence as they read through the first chapter of their textbooks and made notes.
You okay? Violet wrote on a separate piece of parchment, sliding it over to Harry.
I'm fine. He scribbled back, then added: I'm mad.
I know. It's okay. Be careful though.
Yeah.
As Umbridge started doing rounds in the room, Violet hid the parchment and carried on working, suddenly feeling nervous as the toad's beady eyes fixed on her for some time as she passed by. She did her best to ignore it, but couldn't help but notice the slight narrowing of her teacher's eyes as they flicked back and forth between her and Harry.
She's got her eye on us. Violet wrote to Harry when Umbridge was back at her desk. He didn't write a response, but merely gave a subtle, curt nod to show he'd acknowledge what she'd pointed out.
Class couldn't end quick enough. The rest of the hour passed by far too slowly for anyone's liking.
"Miss Merryworth?" Umbridge called over to Violet, just as she was leaving the classroom with her friends. Heart jumping into her throat, Violet turned back around to her teacher.
"Yes, Professor Umbridge?" she said, not forgetting the need to say the woman's full name and title when addressing her. She could feel a sweat beading on her palms - all confidence from earlier on fading fast. What had she done? She'd only asked one fair question after all. Was that enough to be held back?
"Come here, please."
Violet nodded and steadily made her way back to the woman's desk. She gulped nervously as she took in Umbridge's horrific little smile.
"Is there something wrong, Professor Umbridge?" Violet asked politely. Surely there couldn't be anything wrong - as much as Harry had been in the right, she hadn't been as outspoken as him and therefore earned a detention.
"No, not yet, dear," she replied cryptically. "I sincerely hope you won't be causing any trouble in my class, considering your… ah, transgressions, over the summer?"
Violet's breath hitched in her throat, a sudden fear gripping her tightly as her chest felt like it was constricting. She hadn't been expecting that in the slightest. Trying not to let her shock show, she shook her head stiffly. "No - no, Professor Umbridge." It was hard to talk. She wasn't even consciously holding her breath, but mentally reminded herself to breathe.
"I also notice you're very good friends with Mr Potter. There won't be any lying in my class either, I trust?" It was the seriousness in Umbridge's voice that scared Violet the most. The woman may have sounded like honey, but her thoughts were far from it.
"No, Professor Umbridge."
"As for your connections outside of Hogwarts…" Umbridge tilted her head to the side, sizing up Violet. "Well, we'll see what happens about your mail, hmm?"
"I - I'm sorry?"
"How often do you write to Mr Lupin during school time?"
She stuffed her hands inside her pockets, desperately wiping them and clutching the interior fabric of her robes. "Not - not that often, Professor Umbridge."
"I see. Now off you pop. I'm sure you have some studying to do for the rest of this afternoon."
Violet nodded and turned on her heel, keeping her head held high as she left the classroom to find that her friends were anxiously waiting for her. Wide eyed and very mechanical, Violet gestured for them to start moving, wanting to get away from the classroom that had once been a sacred spot for her.
Once they were down an empty corridor, Violet leaned back against a wall, and, inhaling very deeply, sank down to the floor with her head in her palms, shaking. She sniffed once, and the tears started to flow freely, struggling to let her next breath in as her chest kept going through that awful constricting feeling. All that came out was a harsh squeak that nestled at the back of her throat.
"Blimey…" murmured Ron.
"Violet…" Hermione's voice was gentle next to her, as was the hand on her shoulder. Violet looked up to see all three of her friends were crouching on the ground next to her. Ron wasn't entirely sure how to react, Hermione was merely concerned, and Harry's face was set in a quiet, subtle anger because of what Umbridge had reduced Violet down to.
"What did she say?" Harry muttered quietly as he shuffled to sit next to her, shoulder to shoulder.
"T-transgressions. Summer. You. R-Remus…" Violet could only get out one word answers while she tried to calm herself down. She started coughing in an effort to kick start her lungs properly - it worked to an extent. She could breathe properly again, but she was still crying and a little shaky. "I've - I've not been that scared of a teacher before."
"What did she say about Remus?" Hermione asked her.
"How often I wrote to him…" Violet wiped her eyes and tried to shake herself out of it. "At the Ministry, she implied they shouldn't have been asking him to be my witness on the basis of him being a werewolf."
"Oh my god…"
"She's really bad news. If class today wasn't enough to prove that, I think her prejudices do," Violet sighed. Automatically, she went to grab what should have been her long braid so she could fiddle with it, only to be met with nothing. Right. She reached up for her bun and let it loose, finally running her fingers through her hair. "First day back and all I want to do is lie down right now. I'm exhausted."
Harry shrugged. "Do it, then. You look..." His lips drew into a thin line, not particularly wanting to finish that sentence.
"Yeah. I think I know."
"Come on," Harry said, helping her up. He took her bag for her as well, avoiding the gazes that Ron and Hermione gave him as they stood too. "Hermione can wake you up before dinner…"
Violet hummed in agreement, looping her arm through Harry's as the four of them walked back up to the Common Room. It was the closest form of comfort she could get from him right now, and she wasn't sure when they'd even get to be alone together again.
"She's really out of it," Hermione said, coming down from the girl's dormitory. It was dinner time, and as promised, she'd gone to go and wake up Violet, who was still apparently in no fit state to be joining anyone for dinner.
"I've never seen her like that before," Ron said as the three of them started on their way down to the Great Hall. He frowned. "I don't think I've seen anyone like that before."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "It's not exactly common for people to be having panic attacks all over the place, Ronald…"
"What?" he said at the same time as Harry.
"Violet had a panic attack. Quite possibly a one off if Umbridge was threatening her, but they don't leave you feeling up to anything." She paused for a moment. "Harry, you've seen Violet on her off days. Has she ever-?"
"Nope," Harry said. "I mean, I've seen her cry - sure - but never like that. That was… I dunno. It sounded like she couldn't breathe?"
"Typically that can happen, yes…" Hermione's brow was knotted with worry. "I hope this doesn't become frequent. She's never been scared of a teacher before. Wary - yes, of Moody - but not this. I don't want to see her confidence come crashing down. Not now."
"The whole situation with her mum left her precarious enough…" Harry murmured. "She'll be fine though. I know she will."
Hermione wasn't entirely convinced - not with the comment about Violet's mother. "Right… is there any chance of Violet actually forgiving Genevive at this rate?"
"Not yet. S'pose being here away from her will help," Harry sighed deeply. There was still a bubbling anger under the surface of his skin about all of it - about Genevive, about Umbridge, about the current state of his favourite subject at Hogwarts.
And he most certainly wasn't looking forward to detention later on either.
